Luxembourg, 21/09/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Dane Bo Vesterdorf has been re-elected to the presidency of the Court of First Instance of the EU at the second round, by 13 votes in favour, 10 against and two abstentions. The ten votes went to the Spanish judge Rafael Garcia-Valdecasas, the only other candidate to the position.
At the first round, the Danish judge got 12 votes against 10 and three abstentions. He did not obtain the absolute majority plus one vote, as required by the Court's procedural rules.
This election set the Court's two longest-serving judges against each other, the only two who were part of the team in place when the Court was set up in 1989. Another thing they have in common is that they are relatively young, born in 1945 and 1946 respectively.
As the vote was secret, observers theorise that the votes of certain new judges from the ten new Member States of the EU could have tipped the balance in favour of President Vesterdorf, who is on his fourth mandate.
His first term of office started in March 1998, for just a few months after President Antonio Saggio left the post.
Finally, it is worth noting that as judge-rapporteur, both men have had roles in cases which have made their mark on European competition law: Tetra Laval and Schneider for the Court President; Air Tour and Bayer (Adalat) for the Spanish judge.